accepting a mandate for the care of such a patient would need to be assured that the physicians previously in charge of the case would voluntarily and entirely withdraw.

If the "mandatary system" should prove successful in the case of the backward peoples committed to the care of the League by the Covenant, it would doubtless gradually be extended to include the colonies, protectorates and dependencies of civilized states inhabited by backward peoples. Each such

state which desired to act honestly as respects the backward peoples dependent upon it, would have a strong motive to relinquish its dependencies to the League in case it could receive them back as mandatary, for the protection of these regions against external aggression would then fall upon the League. The vast navies now kept up by colonizing states as "insurance" against the loss of colonies could then be dispensed with, and unwillingness of a colonizing state to assume toward its colonies the relationship of mandatary of the League would give rise to the suspicion that it desired to exploit the backward peoples under its control and required its navy to insure freedom from interference in its work of exploitation.

The "mandatary system" is, it is evident, a necessary part of the new system in which the civilized states recognize themselves as having with each other social relations of a legal nature, as well as those purely contractual and economic relations with which international law proper is concerned. There thus seems to be coming into existence, through the establishment of this "society of the civilized states", as The Hague Conferences called it, by international convention, a new division of the general public law, distinct from international law proper a social law of nations, of which the "mandatary system" forms a part.

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INTERNATIONAL LABOR LEGISLATION AND HOW IT CAN BE ENFORCED IN THE UNITED STATES

ABRAM I. ELKUS

Formerly Ambassador to Turkey, Chairman, New York State Reconstruction Commission

IN

N discussing new international relations, in discussing a new condition of relations which is to govern the conduct of men and women, beginning, as we hope to, upon a new basis, there is no principle that should deserve better, higher and deeper consideration than that of creating standards which are to be recognized alike by all the great nations of the earth with reference to men, women and children in industry. The greatest asset which any nation has, and, therefore, the greatest asset which all of the nations of the world have, is not its mines, or its gold, or its silver, or its manufactures— not those tangible things that men and women prize so highly —but the human beings that make up the nations, the men and the women and the children. It is fitting, therefore, in considering any treaty of peace, or any league or covenant which is to govern the nations of the earth, to consider the future of these assets, and what can be done to raise their value if you wish to consider the question only commercially.

Year by year, in the different nations of the earth and the different states of this nation, we have considered and endeavored to perfect means and measures by which men and women who labor shall labor under conditions and under standards which will improve their lives,-which will not only make them happier, but make them better able to render greater service to the nation at large and in particular to those who employ them. We have endeavored in all the states to create standards by legislation, so that men and women will have a chance to be better and happier men and women.

Internationally we may consider five or six great cardinal principles which will make for better conditions under which men and women and children may live and labor, and which in the main will be the subject of international cooperation

or international agreement. First, perhaps, and foremost,

should be considered the future citizens of all countries and what can be done by international cooperation to conserve these future citizens of the state, the children. We all know how in the dark ages, not so many years ago, the labor of children was exploited,-how children began their daily labors often at three and four and five years of age, when they could scarcely go to work but were compelled to, and how year by year legislation has added a year here and a year there, until the legal working age in all civilized countries has now been raised to at least fourteen years. We all know, too, how legislation which curbed the right to make children work at a very early age was attacked in all the countries, and particularly in England and here, upon the ground that it interfered with a man's liberty, that it was a man's or a woman's or a child's liberty to work at whatever age he pleased, and no concern of the nation or the state. As the foundation, therefore, of all international standards, some agreement may well be arrived at among all the nations, that no child-at least under the age of fourteen years, should be permitted to work. If we adopt such a standard, if we begin with that basis, by an agreement among the nations of the earth, enforced by co-operation, enforced by example, we will be building for the future and for the making of greater nations than we ever have had in the past. With a limitation like that, each child will have a better training, will be better equipped for life and will be able to enter upon their industrial and civic life with a foundation of knowledge, which many children at this time do not possess.

There should also be a provision that children between the ages of fourteen and sixteen should be limited to certain kinds of work, should only be allowed to work a certain number of hours, and that there should go hand in hand with work between those ages some system of training, either in the factory or in the workshop, or connected with it, so that the child, if it must labor, will be enabled with the help of the state and the nation to finish out its training, and so that all children, as far as the state can assist them to do so may enter upon life with a proper training.

The next of these cardinal principles, as I may call them, which may be a subject of international agreement, is that of

There again we meet with sell their labor for as long

some limitation of hours of labor. the claim that men have a right to and as many hours as they please. It is all they have to sell, and they claim to be allowed to sell it at such price and on such terms and conditions as they please. But there, again, we must not forget that the state and the nation have rights that transcend those of the individual, because the individual who works or is permitted or forced to work hours beyond what men should be permitted to work, becomes a liability to the nation. Instead of becoming a help, he becomes a drag, and, therefore, the nation has a real interest and a right to limit undue and harmful labor and to say by international agreement whether it be forty-eight hours per week or whether it be fifty-four. Whatever decision may be the result of conference and agreement, some standard should be fixed, so that all the men of the earth-provided local conditions do not interfere should have one common standard, one universal standard of hours of labor, and thus each man in each nation may have before him a common goal and an equal opportunity.

The next, and perhaps going hand and hand with this last principle, is that of seeing that each man and woman receives, not a minimum wage-I never liked the term "minimum

"--but receives a living wage, because it is the right of men and women to receive a recompense in return for labor sufficient for them to support life upon. We used to believe that there was an economic principle, that labor received its due, if it was entitled to its due, but we know now that sometime people are unable to protect themselves, and while even today in many of our American states we hesitate to enact legislation which provides for a living wage for men, in many other states we have seen the justice and the wisdom of providing for a living wage for women, so that they should have the protection which legislation would give them, so that they might be guaranteed, not a minimum wage, but a wage sufficient to support life. If international agreements can accomplish anything, if we are going to build from now on for a better world because of the lessons which the war has taught,lessons which have been learned and are being learned, one international standard is vitally essential-not from the standpoint of the workers, but from the standpoint of the general public that a living wage should be paid to each worker.

There should also be made some provision by which each worker, if the enterprise and local conditions permit-and it has been demonstrated that almost every business can easily be regulated to permit this-that each worker should receive at least one day's rest in seven. That was thought at one time to be a measure which encouraged idleness. People never looked beyond the mere statement of the fact that every man or woman wanted a day of rest, whether it was for the observance of religious rites, or merely because a rest was desired for reasons of health. But as we study more and more the problem of conserving human life and of preventing the deterioration and break-down of men and women, we see more clearly the necessity, especially in the great manufacturing industries-of giving to every man and woman one day, one full period of twenty-four hours in the seven days of the week when all labor shall cease, and when man or woman may be privileged to devote himself or herself to such pleasures or enjoyments or relaxation as he or she sees fit.

Another great cardinal principle, and more and more one that we see the necessity of each day as we recognize that men and women are in many ways alike, is that men and women shall receive equal pay for the same work. If we ask a woman to do the work which a man does or has done, and she does it as well as a man, there is no reason under the sun why she should not receive the same pay. We could make no better ending of this brief statement of cardinal principles underlying international labor standards than to say that men and women, if they are of the same ability, if they can perform the same tasks and perform them equally well, should be equal as far as compensation is concerned.

I think this briefly outlines what may be considered the cardinal underlying principles of international agreement respecting men and women and children who are employed. I may call them, not cardinal principles, but humane principles, because they are founded upon a basis of humanity. Every one of them has as its foundation some human rights, reasonably short hours of work, a regular period of rest, equality of pay, the prevention of the premature labor of children. These are principles which can be easily embodied in a single page of any covenant of peace or league of nations. They will